Air and water inlet for lather making machine



H. E. BARROWS Feb. 28, 1961 AIR AND WATER INLET FOR LATHER MAKING MACHINE Filed Sept. 4, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 l 'Ps /IIIIxTlIllV I l l|\ Feb. 28, 1961 H E, BARROWS 2,973,325

AIR AND WATER INLET FR LATI-IER MAKING MACHINE Filed Sept. 4, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 gag AIR AND WATER INLET FOR LATHER MAKING MACHINE Howard E. Barrows, Racine, Wis., assignor to John Oster Manufacturing Co., Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Filed Sept. 4, 1959, Ser. No. 838,349

3 Claims. (CL' 252-359) of the type with which this invention are concerned, are

disclosed in the patent to Johnson et al. No. 2,610,090, issued September 2, 1952, and in the copending application of Eric S. Stevens, Serial No. 658,807, filed May 13, 19,57, n ow Patent No. 2,925,202, issued February 16,

Thepresent invention is closely related to, and consti- 'tutes an improvement over the lather making machine 'disclosed in my copending application Serial No. 663,973, filed June 6, 1957.

` In general, a lather making machine of the type here under consideration has a substantially cylindrical upright compartment with a cup-shaped soap holder concentrically mounted therein for rotation on a vertical axis. The soap holder is formed in such a way that a cake of soap of appropriate size and shape received therein will be constrained to turn with the holder. The annular space between the cup-shaped soap holder and the cylindrical side wall of the compartment in which it is mounted, constitutes the actual lather making chamber. Here soap solution and air are whipped up into a frothy lather t be expelled from the machine through a discharge port located at an elevation `above the lather making chamber.

Circumferentially spaced ridges on the outer surface of the side wall of the soap holder and similar corruga- Vtions in the adjacent wall of the compartment, cooperate lto agitate and whip the soap solution into lather and propel the same upwardly and out of the machine.

When the machine is in operation, the soap holder and, with it, the cake of soap therein, are rotated at high speed, and water is directed downwardly from an inlet at the top of the compartment onto the cake of soap in .the holder. As the water strikes the upper surface of the rotating cake of soap, it is thrown radially outwardly 'over the soap. This forms a soap solution which enters the lather making chamber where, as already described, air is whipped into it and the lather is formed.

In order for the machine to produce lather of the proper consistency, a degree of back pressure must exist in the lather making chamber. Accordingly, this chamber may not be unrestrictedly open to the atmosphere. Vinstead, the air must be admitted into the chamber through a restricted, though always open, orifice.

Originally, air was introduced into the lather making chamber through an orice small enough to assure the 'needed back pressure,'but separate and spaced from the water inlet. This often resulted in the a.r inlet becoming clogged. The-combined air and water inlet which Vforms the subject matter of my aforesaid copending application Serial No. 663,973, went far toward solving .the problem .of maintaining the air inlet in an unclogged United States PatentI condition. But, in doing so, it created another problem.

It was learned that the proportion of the air to water has an important bearing upon the quality of the lather. Regulation of one with respect to the other is, therefore, required.

The structure disclosed in my aforesaid copending application permits air to enter the lather making chamber at a fixed rate while the flow of water into the charnber is infinitely adjustable. The wide range of this adjustment, however, proved to be an unsuspected source of trouble and often resulted in unacceptable lather due to improper proportioning of the air and water entering the lather-making chamber. This sometimes caused the barber to reject the machine upon the mistaken belief that it was incapable of making good lather.

Tests have demonstrated that if water is permitted to enter thecompartment at too slow a rate with respect to air admission, the resulting lather is of unacceptable quality due to over agitation of the soap solution. On the other hand, if water is permitted to enter the compartment at too fast a rate with respect to air admission, au unsatisfactory lather characterized by a substantial proportion of unfrothed soap solution is produced.

Simply providing air and water inlets of fixed size so that a predetermined fixed proportion of the air and water is obtained, was not the answer, because of the wide diversity of conditions which have to be met. The hardness of the water, the solubilityv of the soap, ,and even thev voltage of the current source with which the motor of the machine is connected, are variables which have a bearing upon the quality o-f the lather. Thus, there was clearly a need for a lather-making machine equipped with means to easily adjust the proportion of the air and water entering the lather-making chamber, but within definite limits, so that regardless of the amount of adjusting done by the barber, lather of acceptable quality is assured.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a lather-making machine of the character described, With improved means for adjusting the rate at which water is fed to the soap compartment, which is sufficiently simple and reliable to be fully satisfactory and foolproof in use, despite the fact that the operators who use the machine may be prone to tinker with the adjustment.

In this connection, it is also an object of this invention to provide a common air and Water inlet for a lathermaking machine, having an air inlet port of fixed size which admits air at a predetermined rate, and an adjustable water inlet port by which the flow of water onto the rotating soap cup may be set any one of a number of predetermined different rates, all of which bear a definite relationship to the rate at which air enters the lather-making chamber, and all of which will result in the production of acceptable lather.

A further object of this invention is to provide a combined air and water inlet valve for lather-making machines, having a rotatable valve plug, and in which a simple spring pressed ball detent not only serves to define the different positions of adjustment ofthe valve plug, but also readily releasably holds the plug in its operative position, to thus facilitate removal of the plug for cleaning of its ports.

With the above and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, this invention resides in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts'substantially as hereinafter described and more particularly defined by the appended claims, it being understood that such changes in the precise embodiment of the hereindisclosed invention may be -made as come within the scope of the claims. f

The accompanying drawings illustrate one `complete example of the physical embodiment of. the vnveptiop constructed according to the best mode so far devised for the practical application of the principles thereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a lather making machine equipped with the air and water inlet of this invention, but omitting portions of the machine not essential to a portrayal of the invention, and with other portions cut away and lshown in section;

Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken substantially on the plane of the line 2-2 in Figure l;

Figure 3 is a detail vertical sectional view taken on the plane of the line 3 3 in Figure 2, but at a larger scale;

Figure 4 is a top view of the Water metering valve per se at an enlarged scale; and

Figure 5 is an exported perspective View of the components of the valve.

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawings7 which illustrate the invention embodied in a lather making machine of the vtype shown in the aforesaid patent to Johnson et al., No. 2,610,090, and the copending Stevens application, now Patent No. 2,925,- 202, the numeral 6 designates the housing of the machine which may be formed as a die casting, and which is closed at its top by a removable top wall 7. The housing contains an electric motor 10 which is mounted therein with its shaft 11 extending vertically upwardly through the bottom wall 13 of a vessel or compartment 14. This vessel or compartment is lixed Within the housing coaxially with the motor shaft, and has a cylindrical side wall 15, the upper edge of which abuts the top Wall 7. The top wall 7 thus provides a tiuid tight closure for the top of the vessel or compartment 14.

A cup-shaped soap holder 17 is rotatably mounted in the vessel or compartment 14 by being secured to the motor shaft. The bottom wall 18 of the soap holder closely overlies the bottom Wall 13 of the compartment, 4but its side Wall 19 is spaced from the surrounding compartment side Wall l5. The resulting annular space forms the actual llather making or agitating chamber 20 of the machine, into which soap solution enters from the spinning soap holder or cup.

The soap holder or cup 17 has its interior shaped to freely receive an appropriately shaped cake of soap S therein, and to constrain the soap cake to turn with the cup as it is spun by the motor. Hence, when water is projected onto the soap cake from above, it is thrown radially out over the surface of the soap to carry soap in solution out of the cup into the chamber 20 through slots 21 in the side wall of the cup. For a purpose fully described in the aforesaid Stevens Patent No. 2,925,202, it is important to coniine the discharge of the soap solution from the rotating cup to its slots 21. This is done by closing the top of the cup, and, for this purpose, the top wall 7 has a depending annular ilange 22 on its underside which ts into the upper end of the cup with only running clearance therebetween.

The lather produced in the chamber 2% is expelled therefrom through a discharge passage 23 that leads from the upper portion of the chamber 20 and terminates in a discharge spout at the side of the machine.

A series or circumferentially spaced helically arranged utes and ridges 24 on the exterior of the side wall of the soap cup coact with vertical corrugations 25 in the adjacent side wall of the compartment, to effect agitation and aeration of the soap solution in the chamber 20. These ridges and flutes 24 also serve to positively expel the lather thus formed from the chamber when the machine is running.

As shown best in Figure l, a thumb screw 27 holds the top wall 7 in place, and an ornamental cover 28 lits over the :top of the machine to conceal the thumb screw and other portions of the mechanism which project above the top wall.

The inlet through which air and water are introduced into the `lather making compartment comprises acombined valve body and ,nozzle` 30, and a rotatable valve plug 31 removably received therein. An externally threaded stem 32 projects from the bottom of the body 30 and through a hole in the removable top wall 7 of the housing to have a nut threaded thereon whereby the body is secured to the top wall. It is to be noted that the body is mounted coaxially of the soap cup, and that it is substantially square in horizontal cross section.

A bore 40 extends vertically through the body 30 and axially through its stem 32 and at its upper end this bore is counterbored, as at 33. Its lower end opens into the lather making compartment 14 and, more particularly, into the soap cup therein, so that water and air fed to the bore are discharged onto the top of the soap cake in the cup. This gives the body 30 its nozzle function.

Medially of its ends, the bore 40 connects with a water inlet 43 which, in turn, is connected with the outlet of a water pump (not shown) in the manner more particularly shown and described in the aforesaid Stevens Patent No. 2,825,202.

The valve plug 31 is rotatably and removably received in the bore 40, and has a cylindrical head 47 which occupies the counterbore 33. The shoulders formed by the underside of the head 47 and the bottom of the counterbore are in contiguous overlying relation, but have a sealing washer or gasket 48 therebetween.

The valve plug has an axial bore 50 extending through all but the extreme upper portion thereof where the bore is constricted to a small diameter inlet port 51. Because of its location, this port is always open so .that air can freely enter the bore 50 at any time, but the size of the port is such that a back pressure is produced inside the lather-making chamber when the machine is in operation.

To allow water to enter the bore 40 from the Water inlet 43, the plug has a series of equispaced radial holes or ports 60 through the wall thereof, any one of which may be brought into register with the inlet 43 by rotation of the valve plug. The size of each port 60, of course, established the proportion of air and water permitted to enter the lather-making chamber since the size of the air inlet port 51 is fixed. It has been found that the ports 60 may vary from a size somewhat smaller to a size somewhat larger than the air inlet port and still result in acceptable lather. But the amount of variation is definitely limited, and if the port 60 is either too large or too small with respect to the air inlet port, it is not possible to obtain unacceptable lather. Acceptable lather has been produced, however, when the diameter of the water inlet port is 8% smaller than the diameter of the air inlet port and is as much as 27% larger than the diameter of the air inlet port.

In the disclosed embodiment of the invention, there are four radial ports 60 spaced apart 90. As shown, each hole is progressively smaller in diameter so that the largest hole has a diameter larger than the diameter of the air inlet port, but not more than 27% larger, and the smallest hole has a diameter smaller than the diameter of the air inlet port, but not more than 8% smaller. Thus, by simply rotating the valve plug to bring a selected port 60 into alignment with the inlet, the rate of liow of water into the lathering chamber may be adjusted in positive predetermined increments, thereby permittlng variation of the proportions of air and water entering the lather-making chamber, but only within acceptable limits.

To facilitate adjustment of the metering valve and ymaintain registry of a selected port 60 with the inlet passage 43, a detent 70 is provided. This detent comprises a steel ball 71 seated in a hole 72 through the wall of the counterbore 33. The ball is biased inwardly against the side of the head 47 on the valve plug, by a spring blade 73 and rides in an annular track or groove 74 in `the head 47 as the plug is turned. At 90 intervals, this track vor groove 74 has .pockets or depressions 75 envases into which the ball drops as the four ports 60 are successively brought into registry with the inlet 43.

Obviously, the depressions '75 must bear a deinite positional relationship to the ports o@ for this locating function to be performed, and in the present case, due to the square cross section of the body and the fact that the hole 72 is diametrically opposite the inlet 43, the depressions and the ports :ne angularly aligned.

The spring blade is an integral part of a collar "i6 which tigitly hugs the body 3i) and preferably is made as a stampi@Y of metal having good resiliency. To give the collar the spring tension needed to grip the body, one or its four sides is slitted as at 77, and to accommodate the water inlet 43 the slitted side of the collar has its lor er central portion cut away as a 78. The spring blade 75 is part of that side of the collar opposite its slitted side, and is dened therefrom by slightly diverging slits 79.

To facilitate turning the valve plug, its head 47 has a knurled knob Sil formed thereon, the air hole opening' through the top of the knob; and to identify the port which is in registry with the water inlet, the top of he knob has suitable indicia 8l thereon to cooperate with a pointer 82 on the top wall 7. As shown, these indicia may simply be the numerals l, 2, 3 and 4, but again their placement on the head must 'oe such that when one of the indicatin numbers is opposite the arrow the port corresponding with that number will be in registry with the inlet.

In addition to identifying the positions of rotation or the valve plug at which its metering oriiices 5b register with the water inlet, the detent 76 also readily removably holds the plug in place. To remove the plug-which may be necessary from time to time for cleaning-it is only necessary to exert a pull on its knob whereupon the ball will be cammed out of the track or groove 74. Since it is desirable that the ball 7l remain in place even when the plug is withdrawn, the inner end of the hole 72 is slightly constricted, as at S3, but when the ball seats against this constriction it still projects beyond the outer face of the valve body. This necessitates providing clearance in the collar 76 to accommodate the projecting portion of the ball during assembly of the collar onto the valve body. Such clearance is conveniently provided by an outward protrusion Se in the collar which extends Yfrom the lower edge of the collar to the base of the spring blade 73.

From the foregoing description, taken together with the accompanying drawings, it will be readily apparent that this invention provides a common air and water inlet for use in lather-making machines, which may be readily adjusted to vary the flow of water into the lather-making compartment, but which may not be so misadjusted that objectionable lather is produced,

What is claimed as my invention is:

l. In a lather making machine having a closed compartment adapted to hold a quantity of soap and into which water is introduced to combine with the soap and form a soap solution, and having means for agitating the soap solution in the presence of air to form lather, means for introducing a metered flow of water and air into said compartment comprising: a valve body having a bore extending longitudinally therethrough with one end thereof opening into said compartment and a lateral bore through the side of the body providing a water inlet into its longitudinal bore; means for connecting the lateral bore with a source of water under pressure; a tubular valve plug axially removably and rotationally adjustably mounted in the longitudinal bore of the valve body with its inner end opening unrestrictedly into said compartment, the outer end of the tubular plug being closed eX- cept for a small air inlet oriiice through which a metered flow of air is admitted for entry into said compartment, the tubular valve plug having a plurality of dilierent sized angularly spaced water flow metering orifices through its side wall and opening into its interior at points spaced axially of its air inlet oritice; said water ow metering orifices being selectively brought into registry with the water inlet by rotation of the plug; means on the plug exteriorly of the valve body by which the plug may be turned to bring a selected one of its metering orifices into registry with the water inlet, and by which the plug may be withdrawn from the valve body; and common detent means acting between the valve body and the plug to removably hold the plug in the valve body and to identify the positions of rotation ofthe plug at which its metering orilices are in registry with the water inlet.

2. The structure of claim l further characterized by the tact that said detent means comprises a hall received in a bore through the side of the valve body outwardly of the lateral bore which provides the water inlet, said ball riding in an annular groove in the valve plug and being engageable in angularly spaced depressions in the bottom of said groove to identify the different operative positions of rotation of the plug; and a leaf spring held in position against the side of the valve body and pressing upon said ball.

3. The structure of claim l, further characterized by the fact that the air inlet orifice is of fixed size; and that the smallest of the plurality of diiierent sized water ilow metering oriices is smaller but not less than about 8% smaller and that the largest is larger but not more than about 27% larger than said air inlet oridce whereby the proportion of air and water permitted to enter the closed compartment may be varied only over a range that will result in acceptable lather production.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,101,356 Zak Dec. 7, 1937 2,196,219 Madden Apr. 9, 1940 2,610,090 Johnson et al. Sept. 9, 1952 2,925,202 SteVens Feb. 16, 1960 

1. IN A LATHER MAKING MACHINE HAVING A CLOSED COMPARTMENT ADAPTED TO HOLD A QUANTITY OF SOAP AND INTO WHICH WATER IS INTRODUCED TO COMBINE WITH THE SOAP AND FORM A SOAP SOLUTION, AND HAVING MEANS FOR AGITATING THE SOAP SOLUTION IN THE PRESENCE OF AIR TO FORM LATHER, MEANS FOR INTRODUCING A METERED FLOW OF WATER AND AIR INTO SAID COMPARTMENT COMPRISING: A VALVE BODY HAVING A BORE EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY THERETHROUGH WITH ONE END THEREOF OPENING INTO SAID COMPARTMENT AND A LATERAL BORE THROUGH THE SIDE OF THE BODY PROVIDING A WATER INLET INTO ITS LONGITUDINAL BORE, MEANS FOR CONNECTING THE LATERAL BORE WITH A SOURCE OF WATER UNDER PRESSURE, A TUBULAR VALVE PLUG AXIALLY REMOVABLY AND ROTATIONALLY ADJUSTABLY MOUNTED IN THE LONGITUDINAL BORE TO THE VALVE BODY WITH ITS INNER END OPENING UNRESTRICTEDLY INTO SAID COMPARTMENT, THE OUTER END OF THE TUBULAR PLUG BEING CLOSED EXCEPT FOR A SMALL AIR INLET ORIFICE THROUGH WHICH A METERED FLOW OF AIR IS ADMITTED FOR ENTRY INTO SAID COMPARTMENT, 